Hand Tools

What I make is usually dependent on what bits of tree become available. Responding to each piece is a fun challenge. When I checked out a small cherry tree that had fallen over in a yard, it had already been … Continue reading →

I have ceded that I am not going to get a full day in the shop this week. So this AM I went at it balls to the wall and I even swept the deck twice. Daughter #1 and her husband left today to spend a few days on Block Island. The SIL leaves for New York on saturday morning. Talked it over with the wife and we are thinking of going to Aunt Carrie's for lunch on friday. Traditionally fish 'n chips was a friday staple here in RI but I don't like Aunt Carrie's fish 'n chips. It reminds of chicken tenders. If we go I'll have to look over the menu and decide then. I usually always know what I want to order when we go out to eat.

speed bump

I forgot about this and I had to stop sanding to fix this. Sawed it off proud and planed it flush.

surround for the middle compartment

I made a sample upright with a 1/4" bead on the outside edge. Although I liked it I don't think it fits with this cupboard. Instead of the bead I went with a chamfer that matched the other two.

I also chamfered the top rail. On the first cupboard I didn't do that. I thought of chamfering the inside of the uprights and mitering it to return to the top but nixed it. I eyeballed it as is and I was ok with how that looked.

glued and cooking

Just glue on all three - no nails and no screws. The glue should be sufficient to keep them in place.

One thing that keeps walking across the brain bucket is adjustable shelves. The bottom one definitely would benefit from one due to its height and depth. The top could too and shelves would increase the storage capabilities.

not square

The left side is square but the right is off. It is just shy by a tapered 1/8".

yikes

I squared the right side of the drawer on the waste side of the taper. I will plane it to fit the drawer opening.

3 sides fitted

I didn't plane the fit for a snug one. There is about a sheet of paper gap on the top/bottom and right side. Sneaking up on the right side at little bit at a time.

it fits

Or rather the angle of the right side matches the out of square of the drawer. I marked the front unto the back and planed the right side of it flush and even with the front.

drawer parts

I checked and corrected all the drawer parts for twist. I will let them sticker overnight and then I'll thickness the sides and back to 1/2".

paint shop run

Painting the 2nd cupboard the same color as the first one. I am going to roll the paint on this one and see what, if any, effect it has on coverage.

top door parts

I intend to use bridal joints on both doors. The top opening is almost square - the top to bottom is a 1/8" more than the R/L.

bottom door

The bottom opening is not square. I found that out when I fitted the top rail and found it was short by a 16th. I sized both of them off of the bottom rail. Guess I have my built in gap already figured out.

I planed all the edges and faces of the door frames. The drawer parts don't need any attention until after I thickness them.

tile frames

These will be used to frame in the tiles within the door panels. I planed all of these smooth on all edges and faces. The left ones are an 1/8" less thick than the right ones. The right ones will be the stiles and the thinner ones the rails. If I don't like the look of the two being unequal I'll make four new stiles or rails. 

accidental woodworker

 We have a volunteer engineer apprentice on board. She is doing her initial training and is doing a great job. We talked a bit about making stuff one day where she was knitting a sweater. I told her a bit about what I had made earlier of woodworking, and she told me that one of her oldest friends were going to get married - and that she would like to make something for her as a wedding gift.

After discussing the various possibilities and showing her examples from my blog she set her mind on something like the small hanging cabinet with drawers which I made 9 years ago.

As per usual, we started off finding a decent pallet frame so we had some wood to make the cabinet out of. Since we are in drydock at the moment, and due to the nature of our ship, we have a lot of the carpenters machines ready set up in a warehouse on the yard. So stock preparation was much easier than it used to be. We have a small Makita planer that could trim the boards to the desired thickness in very little time. The table saw is out of service at the moment due to someone sawing into a hidden screw and activating the Sawstop. So for the ripping of boards we had to use the band saw.

Klara is new to woodworking, so I decided that a rabbeted construction would be the best bet, also given that we need to complete the cabinet before the wedding.
For some reason we don't have a router plane, so for the dado for the shelf, I had to make a small router plane out of a block of wood and a sharpened screw. That worked OK.
There is a Lie Nielsen rabbet block plane on board that we used for the rabbets. I like my Veritas skewed rabbet plane better, or the old combination plane that I have in my ocean going tool set. I didn't bring this set with me, so we had to rely on what we could find on board.

The case was assembled using some headless brads and glue. We had glued up a back panel which was reduced in thickness to 1 cm (3/8"). The back panel was attached in a rabbet with a dab of glue in the center and some more headless brads. The idea is that the back can then move a bit with the seasons without splitting.

I demanded that the face frame was built traditionally with mortise and tenons and rails and stiles. No mitered corners and quick solutions. Klara really liked the look of the face frame on one of my other old cabinets, where there is a small moulding on the inner part of the frame. In order to make something like that, we found an old moulding plane that someone has once donated to the ship, and it was still sharp enough to work. 

So far we have made one corner of the face frame, but today we are going to see of we can complete it and glue it onto the case.

7 Antique Specialty Molding Planes to Buy Bill Anderson shares advice on choosing antique specialty molding planes, for hand tool woodworking, that are dedicated to "clean up".   By Joshua Farnsworth  |  Published 11 Sep, 2024 7 Antique Specialty Molding Planes to Buy

Regrettably, most screws are manufactured in China, unless you opt to order online and purchase individual screws produced domestically. This latter choice is preferable if you are looking for high-quality screws. Unfortunately, domestic screws tend to be more expensive, which often leads people to settle for lower-quality, China-made screws from their local hardware store, only to later regret their decision.

For the second time in a month I loaded my truck to the gunwales and headed off to teach/demonstrate, this time at the recent 18th Century Trades Fair at my friend Tim’s place down county.  I brought about a half shebang, the whole shebang would have require at least two trips. As it was I had an 8-foot Nicholson bench, a display table, a full-sized tool chest, lotsa wood to cut and plane, a ton of show-n-tell including my finishing box and exampls of furniture joinery, etc.

After a couple hours I was set up and ready to go.

 Making progress but another short day. The cottage my sister in law rented is right on the bay. I would love to have a house on the water like this one. Maybe someday when I hit the lottery. That would come after building my dream shop though. I mean, you do have to maintain your priorities, don't you?

wasn't the elves

I came back to the shop before I hit the rack and glued this piece on. 12 hours later I'm ready to shave and trim it.

voila

This is fine because it is going to be painted. If it were being left natural I would exercised more care in matching grain and color. And I wouldn't have added on the small broken piece. I would have taken it all off and started fresh again from square one.

hmm.....

I'm impressed with this. Yesterday the front edge was curling up and today with the clamps off, it is laying flat. I had clamped the front edge down but I didn't expect it stay that way. I'll take them as they come.

two small ones

I was going to put one large one at the end but switched to using 2 small Miller dowels. 

last panel glued and cooking

I got lucky using the bessey clamps on the panels. One side had a cup and the depth of the besseys were sufficient to flatten the offending side.

Mr Lumpy

Getting the last panel in was causing me to have a massive panic attack. I was using my mallet to drive the panel down and it was going slow and slower. I think I got a wee bit of glue freeze but Mr Lumpy just laughed at it. 

the 3rd one

I need this stop (?) for the back panel. I didn't continue the rabbet into the top and bottom. I screwed it in place flush with the bottom of the rabbet. The first two I did were short where this one fits snugly between the sides. I didn't glue this one to facilitate any future repairs or changes.

what would you call this?

It took a lot of dance steps before I go the top edge of it flush and even with the top of the panel. Glue only, no nails or screws.

chamfering the middle shelf

Planed the same chamfer on this edge that I did on the one above. Hope doing this now survives the rest of the time it will be in the shop.

I didn't forget it

I wasn't going to bother putting a dutchman on this because it is at the back. It was hard to see that it was even there when I stood the cupboard up. Glued this and held it for about a minute and let it go. There wasn't anyway that I could possibly clamp it. I glued the other ones without any problems the same way.

tails are proud

This is too much to plane the tails and pins flush. It is the top outside edge and it will be visible. Decided to fill them in with solid wood.

step one

Making a boatload of tail 'dutchmen'.

what saw cut is this?

I made several saw cuts trying to vary the thickness of the tails to come.

pile of dutchmen tails

I only need 3 so the others will be for any oops.

dry fitted

The dutchman tails will have face grain showing rather than end grain. I tried to make a end grain tail and it disintegrated on me.

super glue

I sealed the end grain with a liberal amount of super glue. After it had dried I applied another coat of it and attached the dutchmen.

hmm......

This one looks like it might need a bit of love. Not sure if I'll do anything about this one. It is at the back and at the top. I did the other 3 because those discrepancies/gaps could be seen. I will evaluate it after I trim and flush the dutchman on the side.

done

I put another one in the second one in from the left. After planing and sanding them I am happy with the results. The dutchmen are on the top and it is difficult even for me to eyeball the top (looking down on it).

accidental woodworker

I only got the AM session in today but I was surprised by how many pics I snapped. At first I thought I had missed deleting yesterday's pics but I didn't. I got a lot done before we left to go visit in the PM. Next up on the hit parade is making doors. I'll have to get the tiles on order and get the paint because that isn't that far off.

nailed off

I had some 2" penny nails but I went with the shorter 5D because they have a head. My thoughts were that these would be better with holding the tails down to the baselines.

all seated

Happy with how the nails performed. There are no gaps between the tails and baselines on either side.

no nails needed

All these tails seated without nails. These top ones mated a little bit more snugger than the bottom ones.

flushing the bottom

Flushing the bottom wasn't the nightmare I thought it would be. I had to use the 5 1/2 with one hand and even that wasn't too bad. Got the back flushed with the sides.

half tail

Sawed this out to fill in the missing half tail behind it.

cooking

I was going to leave this proud but after about twenty minutes I sawed it off closer to the side.

the other side

The right side needed a full half tail and the left only needs about 1/2 of the 1/2 tail.

sawed another half tail

I sawed this one off proud and used the blockplane to shave it to fit.

wasn't easy

I just sharpened this blockplane but it wasn't up to shaving the end grain end needed to fit it. I used my LN 102 to do it.

good fit

This won't be seen because this will hidden in the base. It is good practice though for where it might be visible. I glued and let it cook. The fit was snug and didn't need any clamping pressure.

this one ain't going to be so easy

This defect is at the top left front of the cupboard. I'll have to eyeball this one some more before I decided on a plan of attack.

last one to fix

Fingers crossed that this is last of the boo boos I have to address. Again this one is at the top right front on the right.

the 2nd middle shelf

I planed the glue line flush on both sides and cleaned up both faces.

almost a 1/4"

Flattening and squaring one end. The square line is tapered with it high on the right going left. Used the scrub to remove most of the waste.

see the knife lines?

I scrubbed until I saw the knife lines on both sides from end to end. I purposely knifed them deep so I could easily see them after I did this.

done

I use the Lee Valley bevel up jack 99.99% of the time just to plane end grain for squaring. IMO it is hands down the best plane on the planet for this purpose.

not yet

There was a bit of a hump in the middle that was keeping this end from being square. Used my LN low angle blockplane to shave the hump until Big Red said square.

took 3 trips

The hump wasn't large (length wise) and I shaved a wee bit, checked it, and repeated these dance steps until Big Red said it was square.

both ends square

I ran the opposite end through the tablesaw squaring that one up. I lightly planed it just to clean it up and smooth it out end to end.

need a center line

Used the dividers to find the center line.

double checking

The LV mortise guide showed that the two ends were off about a 32nd. I penciled a new line on either end.

double, triple checking

Visualizing negative and positive spaces plays havoc in my brain bucket. I put this shelf against both sides eyeballing it repeatedly. I was pretty sure I laid it out correctly and it was time to put on my big boy pants and bite the apple.

test piece

I made a test cut in some scrap after setting up the bandsaw. The length of this is dead nuts with the shelf.

it fits

There was much joy, rejoicing, and dancing in the streets of Mudville.

I was confident it would fit

The only I wasn't sure of was if it would fit in the dadoes. I planed the shelf but only enough to clean/smooth it. This is the first check of the fit between the dadoes and if the shelf would fit in them.

even more joy in Mudville

I have almost an inch overhand on the sides and 1 1/4" at the front. I trimmed that down to a 1/2". I don't need/want that much overhang over the drawer front.

wow

Another fantastic serendipitous toy. This worked unbelievable well to spread glue in the dadoes and on the ends of the interior panels. As a bonus the glue easily peeled off it.

a 16th off

I'm happy with this. A 16th (IMO) is insignificant and easily adjusted and worked around. The middle opening was a frog hair less than a 1/8" off and it is almost twice the size of the top one.

Miller Dowels

This is a end grain to long grain connection. I will use 3 Miller dowels on each side. I might use one bigger Miller at the front. It depends on how the shelf lays after the clamps come off.

one more to go

I didn't have enough time to get the last panel glued in. I'll have to do it in the AM tomorrow.

fixing this first

This is the 2nd to last boo boo to fix. I planed it flat so I could glue a scrap of pine to it.

sawn out oversize

glued and cooking

I held this in place for about a minute and then we left for the cottage. The time I'm gone I won't be tempted to play with it. 

no elf work

It was almost 1800 and I resisted the urge to remove the clamps. I was a good boy and let it cook until tomorrow.

however,.......

This one I couldn't resist playing with. I placed a scrap under the saw so I wouldn't risk sawing it too low.

had to take one more swipe

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't. It was a frog hair high and I took a shaving - end grain mostly - and broke out the corner. I'll deal with it in tomorrow. Killed the lights for the day and headed back upstairs.

accidental woodworker

 Sunday is my do a little of this and even less of that. I did some work on the cupboard and right after breakfast this morning I was in the shop painting the Willa memorial frame. Barring it being dry, I'm putting a check mark in the done column. The cupboard is going to take a few more days. I still have to order the tiles and get a quart of paint. #2 isn't going to get a light. I'm regretting putting one in the first cupboard.

almost there

First thing in the AM I was checking the frame. I had sanded the wood putty last night and painted it too. After eyeballing it 360 it needed one more coat of black. Did that and headed back upstairs to do battle with the daily sudoku puzzle.

what a mess

Both sides of the cupboard were dinged pretty good with the right being the worse one. I used the green mallet which is encased in a green spongy, soft material. It didn't matter because it left a ding for every whack I made. 

serendipity

The outside banding is proud of the frame while the inside one is flush with it. Not something I planned on, it was due to the different sizes of them. I like the look of it and how it draws the eye downward into the picture.

fitting

Planed and sanded the top panel until it slid into the dado nicely. It was still snug and didn't require me to use a mallet to seat it.

done

All four edges of these two needed to be planed and sanded. These are done and I have the one I glued up yesterday to fit yet.

dry fit

This was mostly to check that I got the length of the two panels correct.  I had no problems with fitting all 3 with the top and bottom on. The middle panel is the one I messed up the notches but its length between the dadoes matches the other two panels.

hmm....

The diagonals were off by over a 1/4" and I thought I was screwed. However, there was enough slack (?) when I pushed the high corners together and shifted the carcass. I didn't think I would have been able to do that. A little playing back and forth and I got the diagonals to agree dead nuts.

glue up

This is the way I plan to glue up the carcass. I will put the first panel where it is now and glue on the top and bottom. The top is a snuggish fit and doesn't appear to need any clamps. The bottom tails don't all fully seat to the baselines and they will need some helping hands from clamping. That is going to be a bit awkward and why I was thinking of nailing the pins. The bigger concern I have is gluing and keeping it square. 

dry

The frame is ready to go to Maria and I'll do that on tuesday. The miniature dresser is going to my sister Donna out in Indiana. I found a box (that isn't too oversized) at Wally World and when I went back to buy one they were all gone. According to the clerk a new shipment comes in on wednesday.

I remembered to paint a second coat on the Willa letters before I killed the lights. No PM session because it was visiting time. Diane's sister came down from New York and rented a beach cottage . Daughter #1 came up from Baltimore also. I might not get much time in the shop this week but I'll do what I can.

accidental woodworker

 I thought today that I would get the carcass glued up. Sad news boys and girls, it didn't happen and maybe for a good reason. Putting aside why it didn't glue up, I'm thinking of painting the interior of it before glue up. Painting the interior of the first one was awkward in certain spots. We'll see what shakes out with that. At the least I'll sand it first. 

first interior banding

I came back to the shop after dinner and started on the banding. I got all the inside ones cut and fitted - dry. I won't be gluing the bandings on to the frame, the inside or outside ones. 

looking good IMO

I don't know what it is about this style of banding but I like it a lot. The black goes well with the deep sea green (the name of the color) well. I taped these with blue painters tape to hold them in place overnight. On the first one I labeled and took them off. When It was time to attach them they were gaps at the corners.

thought this was too small

This is the shelf for the middle compartment of the cupboard. I was looking at it and I thought it was going to be short front to back. It isn't - it overhangs the outsides by 1 1/4" and a 1/2" at the front. Glad I didn't have to make up a new panel.

squaring up the shelf

I squared one end by hand and the opposite end on the tablesaw.

notches time

I needed to find the center between the dadoes. I have to make two notches on the shelf and I will line up the story stick center line with the center line of the shelf.

lining up center lines

I marked the ends of the dado and that will be what I have to saw the notches out to.

hmm......

Something was amiss when I measured the notches on each end. The left one was 1 1/2" and the right one was 1 5/8". I had measured for the center line on the shelf and I did it the 2nd time with the dividers. That gave me the 16th I was off.

practice cut

I had to make an adjustment to this after I made the first test  cut. The kerf didn't line up on the layout line. The second one was right on the money.

simple and easy

The bandsaw made quick work out of sawing this long notch. It was 16 3/4" long.

will it fit?

The other two fit and I used the same story stick to get this one.

yikes

I obviously had my head stuck in my arse and royally screwed up my negative and positive spaces. I will be making a new shelf. I thought of adding a filler but even with painting it, it would still look like crappola.

where the notch should have ended

I really missed the mark sawing this notch. It is evident to me where I erred with this in place. On the flip side of the coin I got the width of it dead nuts on. I will use this one when I glue the carcass up. After that I can use it to make the door frames for the top and bottom openings.

good feeling

This part of the  cupboard is dead nuts square. The diagonals were less than frog hair off each other.

bottom ain't

This opening is off square slightly. The diagonals were off a shade less than an 1/8". I'll probably leave this as is and make any adjustments for it when I fit the door.

making a new shelf

Made this oversized by a couple of inches more than the first one. I don't want any surprises with it being too small.

glued and cooking

I flattened the two boards a little. Both had a small curling up on the outside edges. I will do the final planing tomorrow after it comes out of the clamps.

nailing it off

There are a few spots that I'll have to touch up with black paint. Once the banding is attached this frame is essentially done. I'll have sunday and monday to do any paint touch up before bringing it to Maria.

wood putty

I attached the bandings with my pin nailer and the hole was small. I could pick them out so I filled all of them with wood putty. I also saw a couple of spots of the green that needed some attention. I hit them with paint before I killed the lights.

experiment time

The nail on the left is a cut nail and the one on the right is a finish nail. I'm thinking of nailing the tails and I was going to use one of these for that. However, I couldn't get consistent results in a couple of test boards. One would nail in fine and the next two would split. I definitely don't want to split the tails. The bottom wouldn't be a big deal because it will mostly be hidden in the base. 

didn't matter

I tried nailing with the head at 90 and in line with the grain. The results were the same - some ok but mostly splits.

I'll have to rethink the nail thing

I thought I could sneak up on it by pounding in home gently and taking my time. A big negative on that boys and girls. I also played around with predrilling the hole - I tried several different size bits and none seemed to be the panacea. Thinking out loud - what about screws? Or a different scrap of pine?

accidental woodworker

 Got the pics of Willa today. They were on my desk when I came back from my post lunch stroll. So much for them coming in two weeks. I was disappointed in the sizes of them and there were 3 duplicates too. The frame is too big for the 8 pics I'm putting in it but I'm sticking with it. The goal now is to get it done for this coming tuesday. It should be doable.

gloss black paint

I got 255 letters and numbers from Amazon. Upper and lower case and I'm going to buy another set to have in the shop. Willa will be used in the memorial frame. There will be more than enough room for it. The capitol W is only 1" high.

first of six

First dado chopped and the panel is a snug fit. I might have to shave it a wee bit for it to fully seat. I didn't try to do that here.

hmmm......

Another me-steak. The dadoes are ok, it is the panels that are a problem. The one on the left is the bottom of the drawer opening and it is short by about 1 1/2". That is ok and it really doesn't need to extend all the way back to the rabbet. 

The panel on the right is short by over 5 inches. It is the shelf for the middle opening and I can't cheat it being short. I glued a 6" board to it to get the width I need front to back.

3/4" short

I want this to extend beyond the front edge by a minimum of a 1/2". I don't know how I screwed this up and came up short like this.

left side done

I got a snug fit in all 3 dadoes. I'm getting better at getting a good fit between the dadoes and panels.

awkward going

The right side has a cup in it. I had to clamp boards across it to keep it flat on the bench. It was too annoying trying to chop the dadoes without the cross braces. A little extra work but I got the left side done and all 3 panels fitting snug. I will shave and fit the panels for a sliding fit before glue up time.

8 pics

Played around with the pics and this is what I'm going with. I want to use this frame with the bandings. I really like the look of them and they hide the bridle joints at the outside corners.

upper door opening bottom

I am going to glue a board to the front face so it extends from the front edges of the side about 1 1/4". Rather than saw off this extra I'm leaving it. I will flush the back to the rabbet and after the glue has set up I'll plane the front edge flush with the sides. That should make it easier to glue the extension to it after that.

story stick

This is the width the panels need to be. The top one I can rip on the tablesaw. The other two I'll have to do by hand due to their sizes. The story stick agreed when I checked it against the other two dadoes.

test piece

I set my miter gauge to the story stick and crosscut this to check it. It was dead on.

Big Red

 My first attempt at squaring one end went south on me. I knifed a line on both sides and planed down to it. When I checked it with Big Red it was off. Turned out I used the wrong long grain edge as my reference. Got it right on the 2nd attempt.

two down, one to go

Thinking ahead to the glue up I'm thinking that it would go better if I glue the top and bottom first and then glue in the 3 interior panels. That is why I'm thinking of doing a sliding fit. Or I could be brave and glue it all up at once. 

ugh

Still had rolls of paint right on the arris on both sides. They probably won't be visible once the bandings are in place but they bug me so they are history. This may push the done date back due to how many times I'll have to paint this.

fingers crossed

Painted it again after scraping the arris 360. I have 3 days to address the paint issues and get the bandings installed.

accidental woodworker

This is NOT a definitive list of books about the classical guitar and how to make them. I have all of these books in my personal library and I find that they cover the best of what is the classical guitar. This list is simply a starting point if you are interested in the history of classical guitar and its construction methods. I highly recommend that you join the Guild of American Luthiers , here you can learn about all sorts of stringed instrument making, and you should visit Orfeo Magazine to learn more about the classical guitar of the 20th and 21st centuries. I started this list about the year 2012 after I gave a few lectures to classical guitar students at several universities in Colorado. Please feel free to share this list!

Books on Classical Guitar Construction

Courtnall, Roy. (1993) Making Master Guitars. London, England: Robert Hale.

Cumpiano, William. (1993) Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.

Doubtfire, Stanley. (1983) Make Your Own Classical Guitar. New York, NY: Schocken Books.

Middleton, Rik. (1997) The Guitar Maker’s Workshop. Rambsury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England: The Crowood Press Ltd.

Overholtzer, Arthur. (1974) Classic Guitar Making. San Francisco, CA: Brock Publishing Company

Romanillos, Jose. (2013) Making A Spanish Guitar. Guijosa, Spain: RH Publications.

Sloane, Irving. (1989) Classic Guitar Construction. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.

Books on the Classical Guitar

Bermudez, Egberto, et al. (1991) The Spanish Guitar. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Cleveland, Russell, et al. (2002) The Classical Guitar, A Complete History. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books.

Evans, Tom and Mary Ann. (1977) Guitars: From The Renaissance to Rock. Over Wallop, Hampshire, UK: BAS Printers Ltd.

George, David. (1969) The Flamenco Guitar. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.

Gordon, Stefano. (2001) Masterpieces of Guitar Making. Sondrio, Italy: L’Officina del Libro. 

Huber, John. (1991) The Development of the Modern Guitar. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.

Oribe, Jose. (1985) The Fine Guitar. Pacific, MO.: Mel Bay Publications.

Ramirez, Amalia. (2006) 125th Anniversary, Jose Ramirez. Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Casa Ramirez.

Ramirez, Jose. (1990) Things About the Guitar. Madrid, Spain: Soneto Ediciones Musicales.

Ray, John, et al. (2014) The Granada School of Guitar-Makers. Granada, Spain: Diputación de Granada.

Rodriguez, Manuel. (2003) The Art and Craft of Making Classical Guitars. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation.

Romanillos, Jose. (1990) Antonio de Torres: Guitar Maker-His Life & Work. Westport, CT: The Bold Strummer Ltd.

Urlik, Sheldon. (2015) A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars. 2nd ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Sunny Knoll Publishing.

Wade, Graham. (2001) A Concise History of the Classic Guitar. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Periodicals on the Classical Guitar and Its Construction

American Lutherie. Tacoma, WA: Guild of American Luthiers.

<www.luth.org>

Guitar Review. New York, NY: Classical Guitar Society of New York.

This post is an interruption in my usual sort of writing. Recently I released a new video series on vimeo-on-demand about 17th century style carving. A friend connected me to Liz Davinci, who does marketing for people like me. https://www.davincimarketing.us/ Liz made up a plan for some social media “shorts” to attract new viewers – if you see stuff from me on Instagram, youtube or Facebook then maybe you’ve already seen these clips.

Here’s the part I never thought I’d say – I have a Tik-Tok account too! I thought hell got a little chilly lately… If you read this blog or my substack one, then you surely don’t need to see me on tik tok, but if you use that program and you click those short video clips – they’ll start to see me and bring new viewers into the videos. So any of you tik-tokkers out there…wanna give me a boost? I’d appreciate it.

All of this stuff is over my head. But the vimeo videos sort of flatten out after their initial release and Liz’s plan is to drive new people to them. It’s worth a shot for me, so that’s why you might be seeing a flood of these clips around. Thanks for your time & attention.

The new carving video is here – https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dedhamcarvingsfollansbee

 Moving along on the 2nd cupboard. I'm taking my time with it because I don't want to make any me-steaks. I didn't get as much done as I thought I would but that's ok. I had some errands to run in the AM and I expanded my strolling from an hour to an hour and a half. I'm under no deadlines on this and I'm also contemplating bringing the first cupboard back in the shop to work on. I want to frame in the tiles on the two doors.

2 on

I didn't like the coverage of the second coat. I made it worse by scraping the edges that had paint build up. It definitely needed another coat and probably one more. I painted another coat of black on the outside bandings last night after dinner and this AM I declared them done.

rabbet

I remembered to do the rabbet because I need that done before I can finalize the width (front to back) on 2 of the interior panels. I did the rabbets with the electric router. Then I spent 20 minutes cleaning up the chips it threw all over the shop. I knew there was a reason why I stopped using it for rabbeting.

this is ugly looking

I wonder what caused this? This is obviously how it came out of the planer at Gurney's Sawmill. I don't want to plane it because I will end up with a hollow here. I sanded it with 180 grit (that was on the sander) and it did a pretty good job of smoothing it out. I'm sure it will look better if I start with 100 grit and work up to 180. (Forgot to snap a pic of it sanded. It does look a lot better than this pic)

new panel

This is for the top compartment - it is the bottom for it. I planed it flat-ish removing a slight cup and a hump.

layout

The front edge is my reference for layout. I usually have the back but not this time. I got the position of the 3 interior panels marked and then it was time to chop some dadoes.

Change of plans again. I won't be putting the dividers in because they would be too short (height wise). Instead I'm doing to put a drawer in like I did with the first one. If I make another one of these cupboards I'll have to make the middle opening shorter to allow for taller dividers.

slight cup

Used this strong back to flatten the side to the workbench. This way I'll get an accurate square line for the panel.

maintenance pit stop

This would have most likely worked doing the dadoes for this cupboard. This iron is awkward to sharpen and hone. It takes a lot of time and my fingers ache when I'm done. Today I spent about 30 minutes touching it up and it is ready to eat up a mile of dadoes.

ready to chop

I like using the 2" chisel because it makes it easier to keep the walls straight. I need to touch this one up too but it didn't happen today. My fingers were tingling still. I'll do it first thing in the AM.

breakfast of champions

Six days a week this is what I have for breakfast. I found out that the peanut butter and the nutella ain't so good. Both of them have palm oil in them which is bad for your cholesterol. And the first ingredient in nutella is SUGAR. The dietician I talked to said that these are two items that I should avoid. The rice cakes are ok so I'll keep stuffing them in the pie hole.

new breakfast menu

Still eating the rice cakes but I replaced the Skippy with Almond butter and organic peanut butter. The only ingredient in the peanut butter is organic peanuts and nothing else. The calorie count on it is a little lower than the Skippy.

The Almond butter calorie count is 190 for 2 TBSP. I don't use that much because I smear the rice cakes and don't build up a layer of it. It too has only one ingredient -dry roasted almonds.

The Hazelnut Cocoa Spread has 200 calories per 2 TBSP and its ingredients aren't the greatest but they are better than nutella's. The first listed ingredient is organic cane sugar. It has coconut oil which is all over the dial with pro and con but no middle ground. It also has canola oil which is supposedly bad for you. I'm going to give it a try. I already sampled it and I like the taste. I'll have to wait to see if I feel the same after putting it on the chocolate rice cake.

I couldn't find a unsweetened, palm oil free, substitute for nutella. The Hazelnut stuff is the closest I could get. The next time I go to the VA I'll run this by the dietician and get her opinion. Until then I'll use it in moderation - on one rice cake only.

accidental woodworker

A friend alerted me to an old fruit-bearing pear tree that had fallen in a windstorm, just a couple minutes down the road. When I went to check it out, I wasn’t optimistic about its prospects. Most of the tree … Continue reading →

The trials with the prototype arm bow gave me some confidence in making the real arm bow.  I had originally drawn the arm bow on a big piece of paper, but I knew that wouldn't be good enough to cut out a template from.  So I went to the craft store and bought a $2 piece of thin translucent plastic that would be thick enough to use.  This was the first time I used this stuff and it worked well.  I drew the shape with a large homemade compass and a sharpie marker, then cut out the shape with scissors.

Two planks that will make the four pieces for the arm bow. This used to be a cutting board that someone was getting rid of. These started about 1 1/8" thick, planed down to 7/8".

Here's the template laid out on a blank. The pencil is in the area marked out for the lap joint.

I cut the parts out a bit oversized for later trimming. Here's the lower part of the arm bow ready to be half-lapped

And then the upper piece will be glued on

The lap joints came out good and tight and I got to use a plane that I bought early on in my hand tool life and rarely use - the shoulder plane.  A nice plane, but probably not one of my smarter purchases.

Marked the waste carefully to avoid mistakes

Squaring an end of the left arm and then of the center piece

Using that squared end to mark the half lap on the center piece

Then sawed away the waste ...

... and cleaned up the surface with router plane. There's an off-cut supporting the cantilevered end of the router plane.

Using the shoulder plane to get a nice straight, square shoulder

Then, using the first half of the joint to mark for the second half

Gluing one of the half laps.  Note I didn't use the special clamp blocks that I posted about earlier.  Rather, I just canted the clamps a bit to help pull the joints tight.  It worked well enough.

And after planing the lap joints flush, here's gluing on the upper piece

After the glue dried, I shaved down to the lines and cleaned up the arm bow.  The next step is boring the holes in arm bow and seat, but I'll wait until next time to cover that.

No sooner did I get home from teaching the Introduction to Historic Woodfinishing class and got the truck unloaded, I dove straight into prepping for last week’s 18th Century Trades Fair down at my friend Tim Duff’s place in Mill Gap VA.  I was looking forward to the event, the third annual Labor Day Weekend shindig, as I missed it last year to attend and participate as a longstanding supporter of Handworks in Amana IA.

One of the aspects of preparing for the Trades Fair was making myself a period-appropriate-ish tent in which I would occupy for my demonstrations.  I’d purchased a nice canvas drop cloth several months ago to use as the covering and had “conditioned” it by leaving it spread outside through several rains (tells you how long ago this was; we had no decent rain from April through early August).  Supposedly this tightens up the canvas weave.

As for the tent structure I decided to make everything from 2×4 construction lumber I had on-hand, it was a bit lightweight but it was handy.

I made the long main beam from a pair of full-sized boards, hand planed and scarfed together with a 24″ long “bird mouth” to achieve the 12-foot length I needed.  These were supported by hand planed full-sized 2x4s mortised into the beam.

I spruced up the posts with recurved corbels and cut a curve on the end of the beam, then chamfered everything by hand.

To make the posts and beam into a tent I fashioned ten tent poles, again using 2x4s but cut into octagons on the bandsaw, then spokeshaved and once again hand planed.  I actually found one of my Japanese planes to be the best tool for this task.

Once the surfaces were all planed I added pins (screws) to the tops of each pole.  The pins were inserted into holes in the leather grommets I glued at the appropriate places in the canvas.

The guy ropes held everything upright and I planed a bunch of leftover Gragg chair pieces to be used as the cord stakes on-site.

Fortunately, I had the space on the fourth floor of the barn to set it up ahead of time.  As it turned out I did not need the tent at the event, Tim had erected a large tent and asked me to demonstrate there along with a hand-finished deerskin artist and a local historical fort presenter.  But, as Mrs. Barn says, I’ve got a first-class shelter for the next time I need one.

Plus, as the title alludes, two trash bags of shavings to use as tinder this winter.  Since she is the one to revive the fire from the overnight coals every morning (a handful of shavings gets it going right away) the pleasure from the project will continue for many months.

How to Choose Antique Scratch Stock, Hand Beaders & Hand Routers Bill Anderson shares advice on choosing antique scratch stocks, hand beaders, and hand routers.   By Joshua Farnsworth  |  Published 05 Sep, 2024 How to Choose Antique Scratch Stock, Hand Beaders &

 

Good day in the shop and I got all the dovetailing done on the sides. This is a first for me dovetailing (top and bottom) such a large thing. I wasn't sure how it would come it out because I was out my comfort zone for sawing the pins. I had to be inventive and work outside of the zone. I got it done and although it wasn't the prettiest tails and pins I've done, I'm happy with the results.

flat and even now

Yesterday before I sanded and painted this, this face was splotchy with shiny and dull spots along the length. It looks so much better now and these will be the inside banding - which means it will be highly visible. I sanded the four outside bandings and painted them too.

experiment time

After thinking about it I decided to saw the pins this way - with them overhanging the bench. I thought of kneeling on the sides with them on a saw bench but nixed it for this way. I sawed these with the outside face facing up.

ugly looking

This side isn't too bad and I'm sure I could have used a chisel to straighten out the saw cuts off 90. The other face (missed getting a pic of it) was worse looking. All of the cuts were off the pencil line and short of the baselines. Half the cuts were on the wrong side of the line. Regardless of that, none of the saw cuts were acceptable.

swapped saws

Using the dovetail in the background was not working well. It was awkward to saw with and I had a ton of headaches trying to track on the pencil lines. I swapped over to my LN dovetail saw and that worked sweet. The shorter length was an asset sawing and I had no problems tracking on two pencil lines. I sawed all the pins kneeling on my exercise pad and I also had no eyeball parallax hiccups say hello.

tracked well

I tried sawing with the narrow end of the pins facing up so no saw fuzz got on the wide, face side of the pins. These weren't as good as I do pins in the Moxon or the workbench face vise.

other face

In spite of kneeling on a nice soft pad my left knee wasn't too happy. It definitely let me know it was displeased with all the up/down and kneeling BS.

hmmm......

It would appear that I failed to saw the bottom panel to width. I noticed this boo boo when I transferred the tails to the pin board. I got lucky in that the teeny half pin will be at the back of the cupboard. I'll deal with this after it is glued up - I'll plane it flush then.

the real deal

First of the side pins sawn. These aren't looking like the tails/pins I usually do but it is what it is. Any gaps etc I'll fill in with putty and the paint will absolve me.

face side

Tried another way to saw the pins. Gravity begins to be an evil force that sucks pond scum at 70 and kneeling made it worse. I laid the side on the end of the bench and sawed the pins standing up. This was almost as close to sawing these I would do as if they were in the Moxon. I like to saw the top edge first and then saw down and I was able to do that pretty much this time. 

I did one side kneeling and the other this way. The pins I sawed this way were much better than the kneeling ones. I'll have to remember this for the next time I can't saw dovetails in the face vise or Moxon.

it is toast

I use this mallet exclusively for chopping dovetails. I have had it repaired once last year(?). I had dropped it off the bench and the handle was spinning and it was flopping around. Blue Spruce fixed it and today the handle is loose again. I broke out the green carving mallet to finish the chopping the pins. It was too annoying trying to use my favorite one. 

I'll have to buy a new mallet from Blue Spruce to replace this one. The handle is epoxied into the head and I'm sure that the bond is what has failed. Not sure if epoxy bonds onto  itself? 

ready to check it off the saw

I didn't shave the pins. All I did was my normal cleanup of the pin socket and walls. The pins I sawed kneeling down I had to shave/trim a bit. Especially the ones I sawed off the vertical pencil lines.

sigh of relief

Ugly and proud but they went together off the saw and with a couple of hand thumps. Getting the first one fitted took a ton of weight off my shoulders. Wasn't sure how well dovetails on this would work out.

bottom tails/pins

I'm blocking out the shop light because it was interfering with snapping the pic. These went together off the saw but I used the green mallet this time instead of my fist. I did go back and shave a couple of the pins that were a wee bit too snug. It was this that had me worried the most. Having the pins and tails too tight to go together or worse, being misaligned and toast.

third one fitted

The pins on this side needed a haircut. The top went together but it was too tight. With glue I would have risked the pins and tails swelling enough that they wouldn't mesh anymore. I shaved the pins for a looser fit.

one point for the home team

The last bottom fitting was a Royal PITA to do. That was the one with angled saw cuts that once I corrected, the pins and tails were still too tight. They were going together but I wasn't happy with the force required to mesh them only a 1/3 of the way. It took 4 chisel the pins and check the fit before I was happy with it. 

Got the bottom and top panels on. I did the bottom one first and then I did the top. The top was a bit awkward because the right side has a cup and I needed 3 extra hands to hold the cupboard on the bench, start the left side, hold the right side in position and push the side in and flatten it. Once I got it started it went all the way home.

sneak peek

This cupboard is going to be taller than the first one but about 8". I couldn't check it for square on the diagonals because the bottom panel isn't flush. It looks square and there are 3 interior panels that should help with keeping it square too. I also noticed that I don't have a panel for the bottom of the top compartment. Don't know how I missed that one. I'll make that tomorrow.

accidental woodworker